Fractured Endings
by SoSaysL
Summary: "You're more a part of me than any heart shard," he says to her, and he chooses another princess. Yet, shadows and secrets whisper in the night of even fairytales, and slowly the edges of her pendant are darkening. An alternate ending to Princess Tutu.
1. The Princess' Sacrifice

**[A/N]** And here is my latest idea - What if Mytho had chosen Princess Tutu? Happy endings are hard to come by these days...

**1. The Princess's Sacrifice**

They are the final survivors of this battlefield. There is nothing left. It is an end game of chess, the pieces few and the stakes high, the air weighty and tense on their shoulders. Siegfried steps towards her, a hand outstretched, golden eyes piercing.

"Princess," he begins, "I must regain my full powers so I can battle the Raven and avenge those who have fallen."

He sees her hands clutch at the pendant in the hollow of her throat, and the terror of disappearing is plain in her eyes. The pendant must be _vital_ to her somehow, he thinks-

- and suddenly, the hollow cry of a thousand ravens tears from above. He sees her hands flutter and the sparkles of an incantation escape from her fingertips, and then the sky is _red_, the terrible red of blood and death, as it pours down on them all.

His palms press against something cold, a transparent, protective sphere that surrounds him. The flood halts, leaving red trickles down the curved sides of the glass. He pounds against it, but its enchanted walls soon disappear into nothingness. When he steps on the cobbled stone, he notices that the crimson has seeped into the ground already, leaving little evidence that it had ever been.

"Prince-" he hears her strangled voice, and he looks at her with alarm. Upon first glance, she seems her usual self, but her crown is askew, and there are tears in her eyes. "Are you all right? Did the raven's blood touch you?" She asks weakly, but he doesn't miss the way her gaze darts to her arms, to the fabric of her dress.

"No," he says slowly, finally seeing what had happened. "It didn't. Thank you."

She dips into a curtsy, but it's shaken and lacks her usual grace. "I'm glad," she smiles.

"And you?" he asks. Her dress is still pure white. How is that possible? Had she somehow shielded herself as well?

"It…it's nothing," she manages. As someone who had leapt out of windows to rescue flightless birds, he instantly knows that she sacrificed that half-second for him, that in the precious instant before the rain of raven's blood came, she had spun a shield for him and left herself unprotected. The effects of raven's blood come to mind - the sickening evil that had flooded through him, gradually, the dark urgings and corruption that had whispered in his veins. He looks at her again, beautiful and clothed in absolute white, and immediately pushes the thought away. Surely she had remained safe during the rain.

"Don't worry," he says, and somehow his words comfort both of them. He hears his heartbeat in his ears, reminding him to take action, that the Raven was waiting. "I'll end this," he says. "Keep the final heart shard. I don't need it."

"But your full powers-"

"I have most of them already. You can't disappear. You're more a part of me than any heart shard." He raises his head to the sky, and with that confidence, suddenly he is clothed in regal finery to match her own, his sword at his hip. He offers his palm to her once more. "Will you join me, Princess?"


	2. The Prince's Battle

**2. The Prince's Battle**

She does not know which of them conjured the whirlwind flowers that bear them both into the sky, but it doesn't matter. The wind stings against her face, but he's there beside her. They pass through a haze of darkness, and she suppresses the cough that rises in her chest.

The mist thins, but blackness is still everywhere. They step onto the solid clouds stretching out endlessly, scorched inky black and grey at their feet. Above them might have been the sky, but it seems instead a bottomless void, a pit of unflinching darkness.

"Where is it?" She whispers. Both of them start at the rich male voice that echoes in response.

"Hello, Prince and Princess." A figure steps out, features indistinguishable. In its hand is a long sword of burnt, twisted silver. "I supposed I'd take a human form this round. It's no fun if I don't give you a chance at winning, now, is it?"

Her heart falters. The raven has become an apparition of her prince drenched in evil. His eyes glimmer mauve-violet, his movements seductive and sure as he hefts the sword in his hand menacingly. "Shall we begin battle?"

Siegfried rushes forward in response, and swords clang violently. Watching the two is unsettling - even though she knows the true nature of the raven, it is almost as if she is watching the prince battling himself. Her prince lunges, but the raven prince blocks him easily and retaliates with two quick blows, one of them drawing blood at the prince's shoulder.

Another clang of swords. "This is disappointing," the raven prince sneers. "Finding yourself inadequate to the evil that lives within?" Siegfried looks up, something having struck a jarring chord in him, but doubles his efforts instead of falling back. The outcome remains uncertain. Any moment could be his death. And she couldn't allow that to happen.

With a series of pirouettes and one grand leap she lands behind the raven. In an elegant grand battement, she raises her leg to deliver a kick with her hardened toe shoe to his head. The evil prince remains in place, stunned, so her prince's attack connects at that moment in a burst of red blood.

She steps back, guilt plunging through her, as the raven prince staggers to his knees and finally slumps sideways to the floor.

Her gaze meets Siegfried's, and she detects the flicker of amusement in his eyes. "Really?" He asks, gesturing to the fallen raven prince. "A kick to the head? It was that easy?" And then he laughs. "Now why didn't I think of that?"


	3. Their Darkness

**3. Their Darkness**

They've both agreed they can't stay here for too long. He remembers the raven-girl, a girl of black feathers, bewitching eyes, and desperate passion, running towards him and then suddenly seized and swallowed mercilessly by the demon raven that had once called itself her father. _Rue_. A deep sadness stings in his chest. The people don't remember her, and even now he feels that he and his princess no longer belong here. They must return.

There's a sort of melancholy that has grown inside them both. She takes his hand gently, and they sit inside the magical carriage. No one waves to them as they leave. He holds her more tightly, as if to ward off the loneliness. The tale has ended, hasn't it? Haven't they won?

They arrive at his kingdom, and everyone is entranced by the new princess. She's beautiful and perfect, and they adore her. It is just as when he had left - the magnificent castle amidst the warm, crowded buildings of the city, the curious townspeople and stately members of the court. There's a stoic knight, with callused hands and dark green eyes, who reminds Siegfried of someone long gone.

He wonders if time has passed here - if anyone remembers that he ever left for longer than a week - but it would be futile to ask. He's haunted by the raven-girl, by the shapes of the shadows he imagines, and he feels a persistent weakness in his heart. Is it the emptiness of the last heart shard, or longing for the darkness? Either answer frightens him.

* * *

The prince's honesty cuts deep. She feels undeserving of the adoration she receives, of the love he gives. She's merely a sham of a princess, isn't she? She doesn't belong here, not in this perfect world.

At night, she lies awake, staring into darkness, and memories rise, unbidden. The pendant gleams at her neck like a gem of red blood. She wears it always, unable to tell him that she is a duck, that she is Ahiru, that she is not the princess he loves. She has stolen a vital part of him, she has tricked him into loving her, and perhaps that is why the corners of the pendant's gem have begun to darken.

She passes the Prince's knight in the hallway, and barely stops a gasp as the memories surface - of how he, Fakir, had run at the ravens in bleak defiance of his fate, and how his body had been sliced in half by hundreds of talons descending from the sky. She weeps for his memory in a silent moment, but cannot work up the nerve to approach the knight and ask about his identity.

Yet, she is the people's princess with the sweet smile and lovely blue eyes. Her duty is to them and to Siegfried, and she cannot be selfish.


	4. The Princess' Confession

**4. The Princess' Confession**

They circle in an afternoon waltz. The golden light pools on the marble floors, and they are the only ones dancing in the grand ballroom. She feels the elegance of her steps and remember her true klutziness, how she might have fallen over her own feet had she been in any other form. But would he reject her if he knew? No one would be particularly inclined to keep a duck by their side, she thinks ruefully. And yet, she's never been good at lying.

"I'm Ahiru," she confesses suddenly, stepping into a twirl.

"I know," he says, smiling evenly at her as he holds her in place. "Rue told me. I didn't bring it up because I thought it might be uncomfortable, but I'm glad you broached the subject."

She blinks, but chooses to barrel on. "I'm also a duck."

This gives him pause, and he abruptly stops in the middle of the waltz. "Really?"

She nods, searching him for any sign of revulsion.

He looks at her thoughtfully.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, my prince," she says, pressing a hand to her heart. "I couldn't keep this secret any longer. I understand if you want me to return, or perhaps-" she stops, mentally pounding herself over the head for her stupidity. Nothing could undo her deceit.

"So the pendant is what helps you transform?" Siegfried asks, seeming genuinely curious. "And the master-story spinner must have added _you_, a duck, into the story?"

"Yes."

He nods matter-of-factly. "So it turns out I'm planning to marry a duck."

"I don't want you to feel honor-bound," she begins, but that doesn't seem adequate. "I mean, I should have told you - told you from the start - I'm sorry!"

"But all animals have human souls," he says seriously. "You know, I have my reasons for jumping out windows to save little birds who can't fly. Their lives are just as important. So is yours. A duck became a princess. Yes, it sounds almost like a fairy tale."

She looks up at him in disbelief. He doesn't seem angry in the slightest.

"It's even better if you're a duck," he says evenly. "You're just like the rest of us, and yet magic lives in you. But I'd like it if you kept wearing the heart shard. Think it as my gift to you for saving me from the raven."

"You're too kind."

He smiles, and something in his eyes flickers a momentary purple. "Too much kindness? There is no such thing."

She ignores the way her heartbeat falters in her chest. "You'd be the last person to know if there was," she teases. "Anyway, I'm just glad you're not angry with me."

"But even I'll admit there's limits to my, ah, 'kindness' - people might get kind of suspicious if I start…uh…carrying a duck into my meetings." He lowers his voice. "I hope you're not offended."

"No," she laughs, and suddenly she feels lighter. And yet, she hasn't told him about the pendant that's darkening, about the stirrings she feels in her heart, about the dreams of the knight that plague her, and she's struck by the feeling that her happiness is not deserved - and, perhaps, that it might not be happiness at all.


	5. The Prince's Secret

**5. The Prince's Secret**

She has confessed her secrets. She has come clean. But he feels familiar stirrings in his heart, and wonders if the raven's blood is returning. He hears the raven girl's quiet chuckle at night, and he remembers how close he had come to stealing hearts for the raven. He awakens, drenched in a cold sweat, from a nightmare in which he has become the evil prince, cloaked in black feathers, holding a red gem in his hands, and realizes that it is his own heart. Or perhaps it hadn't been a nightmare. Something in him is drawn to the power of the ravens that had sung in his blood.

There's no harm in thinking, he reminds himself. No harm in dreaming.

The advisors tell him that the early summer is ripe for a royal wedding, before matters of politics can get in the way. He's told that tensions are soon likely to rise with one of the neighboring kingdoms, and the autumn will require diplomats and lengthy meetings.

Over a romantic dinner one summer evening, he asks her if she will marry him. She clutches his hands in hers and nods. "I love you-" she bursts out suddenly, "for staying with me despite knowing who I truly am. That can only happen in a fairytale."

The strange impulse crosses him to reach out and tear the pendant from her neck, as if he were stealing her heart, but he quickly masks it by presenting her with a bouquet of roses. She loves him, but does she know who he truly is?

"We are the rulers of a fairytale," he says, speaking as he knows the prince should. "It will always be so."

But when they kiss, he feels countless dark eyes upon him, as if they have suddenly become prey of the darkness with these declarations of undying love. _Love doesn't exist_, a voice says, _only delusions and lust,_ and he pretends he doesn't hear it.

They hold a grand ball to celebrate their engagement. "Let it be a masquerade," she says happily, and the castle is filled with preparations for the upcoming feast and dance. "Find me if you can," she says in his ear at breakfast before the ball. The early morning sun hazes through the windows warmly, diffusing over their skin.

"It shall be exceedingly difficult for you to recognize me," she adds.

"Really? I doubt it. You're not plain enough to blend in." He observes jokingly. "I suppose I have to return the challenge. We'll be tasked with finding each other, then."

"Before the clock strikes twelve," she finishes. "Like a race against time."

"Cinderella, now are we?"

"_I'm_ Cinderella," she says. "I don't know about you."

"Perhaps you're all the fairy tale princesses in one," he says, musing. "Perhaps you're their symbol, the embodiment that true love exists, that dreams come true."

"And you the dashing prince-" she says, nodding vigorously. "It's all very perfect, isn't it?"

Perfect? It should be, he thinks. Somehow it is, and yet it isn't.


End file.
